Category Archives: Generosity

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With fewer than 100 days left in the year, you may find yourself wondering how you can encourage your people to “finish strong” this year in terms of generosity. Now is the perfect time to be asking yourself that question.

The most immediate benefit of a year-end giving project is, of course, increased giving. And we can all celebrate that result. But planning a strong year-end giving initiative with care and excellence will yield far greater results. Let’s take a look:

1. It prompts spiritual growth.
Growth in the area of generosity is a journey. Each time you broach the subject, you encourage people to take a step on the giving pathway. You encourage people to adjust their thinking and behavior patterns to align more closely with their faith. This time of year provides an excellent opportunity to raise this topic once again.

2. It normalizes the conversation.Many church leaders are hesitant to talk about money. And your people don’t want to hear about money either – so it’s avoided completely. While most feel this avoidance solves the problem, it actually helps to ensure a negative outcome. As pastors, avoidance is simply not your friend. We need to do all we can to normalize the conversation, and an emphasis on year-end giving will help you do just that.

3. It provides an opportunity to talk about mission and vision.An annual vision weekend or generosity series rarely creates any long-term traction in the lives of your donor base. Donors want to play a part in the larger story. It’s your job to show them how. It is critical that you take every possible opportunity to discuss, in a meaningful way, the church’s mission and vision and the role generosity plays in supporting the ongoing ministry of the church. Connecting the dots between generosity and ministry will help your people see how their giving truly makes a difference.

How do you grow generous hearts? As a pastor you’ve probably asked yourself (and your other pastor friends) that very question. How do you accelerate generosity in your church? How do you help people take the next step in their giving journey? How do you encourage your people to live radically generous lives?

You’re not alone. The team at Generis is asking those same questions, and with more than 600 years of combined ministry and consulting experience on the team, we have a few answers to share.

With the launch of the new Generis website, you can find some of those answers while our team continues growing generous hearts toward God-inspired vision.

Late last year I reached out to more than 500 church leaders across the country with a survey on the topic of generosity. At the end of the survey, I offered an opportunity for respondents to ask me any questions they had on the topic.

I must say, you and your fellow church leaders posed some great questions. Thank you! (In fact, one of the most common questions has started developing into an e-book I’m eager to get into your hands soon, so stay tuned for more on that!)

But first, I’m excited to start answering these questions one by one with a string of blog posts in a “You Asked For It” series. Today’s question was one raised by several respondents, so I figure that’s a good place to start.

Q: How can we include generosity as a regular element in worship beyond the weekly offering?

In a recent debrief with the senior pastor and generosity team of a current church client, we spent time reviewing the just concluded public phase of their recent initiative. (I always value this conversation with my clients - What did we learn? What worked? What didn’t? What should we change next time? It’s most helpful to get that information while it’s still fresh in everyone’s mind.)

The most significant takeaway for the pastor in this instance was a tool we implemented together to help establish some “generosity next steps” language the church can continue using from this point forward.

NEXT STEPS PROCESS…
This particular church has an extremely clear (and very effective) next steps philosophy for the assimilation of new people. They are brilliant at this implementation (as is reflected by their appearance on Outreach Magazine’s Fastest-Growing Churches list).

It has been an amazing few months in my ministry with Generis. God has allowed me to witness several magnificently extravagant gifts as part of accelerated giving initiatives where I’ve been blessed to participate as consultant and partner to my church clients.

I’ve seen individuals and families make commitments of $500,000, $1,000,000, $1,500,000, $2,000,000 and $3,000,000!

It is amazing to see God move in the hearts of those He has blessed financially to make huge differences in Kingdom initiatives for church ministry, local outreach, and national and international missions efforts.

In the spring of 2011, Andrea and I had reached giving goals that we had set for ourselves the year before. We were feeling great that God had so blessed us that we were able to give at levels we had never attained before.

Having given beyond the tithe for years, this marked a new level of generosity for us. And, to top it off, these goals were reached during the same year our youngest entered college.

Now we were paying the expenses for two to be in full-time higher education, and yet, giving at never-before-seen levels! Thank you, God.

Non-profits have recently begun their year-end appeals. Why? Because they know that the largest percentage of charitable giving occurs during the last two months of the year.

What are you doing to accelerate generosity toward your ministry in 2011? As people begin to consider how to invest the last of their charitable dollars this year, you will want to have top-of-mind position with your congregation.

So often we hear the word stewardship and we think of “time, talent and treasure.” Good old T3. If you’ve been in church for any time at all, you’ve likely heard stewardship in this context. We have been ingrained to focus on those things that the church preaches and teaches during the generosity emphasis. (At least I hope the church is preaching it!)

Years ago it was impressed upon me that stewardship goes way beyond T3. You see, God owns everything we have – absolutely everything. He owns the cattle on a 1,000 hills – he owns the hills! Nothing exists that He did not bring into being. “…for the world is mine, and all that is in it.” Psalm 50:12b (NIV – emphasis mine)

I served a church client recently and had opportunity to engage in conversation with a high capacity donor couple who had demonstrated extreme generosity towards the church’s ministry over the years. As the campaign neared its conclusion, the donor, encouraged by his wife, inquired about the progress of the initiative and my reaction to the results that had been attained up to that point.

As we talked, the donors indicated a desire to increase their gift from $500,000 to $900,000. Then he said, “Oh, just make it $1,000,000”. As his wife walked away celebrating their decision to increase their gift, the husband rolled his eyes and said “I just gave a million to [name of his Alma Mater]!” Of course the pastor was ecstatic when he learned the news of the revised gift. Yet I left thinking that we could have had $2,000,000!

ABOUT ME

Rusty Lewis joined the Generis team in 2001, following a fourteen-year career raising money for schools and non-profit youth groups. With experience in education and as vice-president of a $22 million corporation, Rusty’s breadth of experience fuels his calling to serve churches and faith-based non-profits.

Rusty has earned certification as a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), holds a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Central Missouri and is a member of the Association of Fund Raising Professionals (AFP) and the National Association of Church Business Administrators (NACBA). He serves as a coordinator for Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, teaches courses for Crown Financial Ministries and serves on the generosity team in his own church.